Alien: Isolation

Held off on playing this game for years. I'm not a massive fan of no-fight horror games, I think they kill player agency. BUT this game has an amazing balance of no-fighting vs fight when you need to. It's got a great atmosphere, fantastic sound design, and the level design is mostly great. I played on hard because I've got a few horror games under my belt and I like a challenge. I can't say I would consider the game particularly challenging on hard. I finished with full amounts of flame fuel, throwables, and crafting materials. Nightmare is supposedly more restrictive so I might give it a try at some point. The Alien - I think what most people come for is the fear of being hunted down by the perfect organism. It's scary at times, but it never quite strikes the balance of feeling constantly hunted. The alien was either walking around and I could just walk away, or it stayed in the vents for about 50% of a mission. I think the issue is that the alien and its two AIs rely on players being too afraid to move and thus lingering or using too much of their equipment. This trains the alien to find you faster. If, however, you constantly walk about and never linger, you will almost never encounter it. That being said, when I did encounter the alien it was almost always a game over. You can flame it, but it will become more aggressive. You can smoke bomb it but that either worked or didn't with no consistency that I could find. It was frustrating at times to lose my progress in the longer stretches because the alien would jump me faster than I could change gear. It's a skill issue more than anything, so don't let it put you off. The other enemies The androids felt like good companion enemies to the Alien: They're dumb, they're slow, and they are relatively forgiving in terms of damage. You can kill them but it takes a lot to do so (unless you use the bolt gun). They work well as filler enemies that are still tense to confront. Humans suck. They have greater eyesight than any other enemy, they will shoot you but not hear each other shooting you, and they will either completely ignore your distractions or act so randomly that it doesn't matter if you use a distraction. I managed to get through without killing them, so I can't tell you how tough they are to fight, but one noise maker will send the alien straight at them to sort the issue. The other bits The game's story is pretty lackluster. I kept expecting some great twist to happen, or for characters to have a greater involvement but honestly most of the little plotlines ended with a whimper besides maybe two of them. The ending was extremely abrupt and felt almost nonsensical. The cutscenes can be very jarring in their transitions and cuts. and one in particular towards the end felt like it did not match the urgency of the level. Gunplay feels surprisingly great for a game that encourages you to use your guns sparingly. I think it has one of my favourite reload systems, similar to The Bunker. Exploration is rewarding, all the files you find are interesting to read, and the increasing desperation of the station is pretty well conveyed. Overall Give it a try. If you like the Alien franchise or you just want a good horror game this is worth the price. It has weak spots but they never outdo the great parts. The difficulty is pretty well balanced and you are free to play the game in your own way, just expect the game to play you in return.